Transactions
of the American Philological Association
Vol. 133, Fall
2003
I. Presidential Address
2003
Michael
Gagarin, "Telling Stories in Athenian Law"
II.
Papers
J. Marks,
"Alternative Odysseys: The Case of Thoas and
Odysseus"
This paper
explores the different ways in which the relationship
between Odysseus and an Aitolian hero, Thoas, is realized
in ancient Greek epic. Odysseus paints an unflattering
picture of Thoas in the Odyssey, yet the two are allies in the Iliad and in non-Homeric accounts of Odysseus'
"post-Odyssey" life; both antagonism and sympathy
between them can be discerned in the Ilias
parva and the
Hesiodic Catalogue of Women.
Here it is argued that epic geography offers a partial
explanation for the association of Odysseus and Thoas
generally, and that their antagonism in the Odyssey alludes to conflicts between canonical and
non-canonical accounts of Odysseus' return.
Svetla
Slaveva-Griffin, "Of Gods, Philosophers, and Charioteers:
Content and Form in Parmenides' Proem and Plato's
Phaedrus"
This article
examines the ways in which Parmenides and Plato avail
themselves of the literary motif of the charioteer's
journey for philosophical discourse. I argue that the
Phaedrus' myth of the soul as charioteer
exemplifies Plato's literary and philosophic
appropriation of the charioteer allegory in Parmenides'
proem and of Parmenides' concept of being, showing how
the literary study of intertexts can be applied to
questions of both content and form in philosophy.
Lora Holland,
"Pas domos erroi: Myth and Plot in Euripides'
Medea"
This study
explores the significance of Medea's conjugal family for
the plot of the Medea.
Both Jason and the royal family at Corinth belong to the
House of Aeolus; coherent reference to this House is
central to the play's mythological imagery. The House's
mythography, of which the Chorus shows awareness,
involves an inherited curse associated with the Aeolid
most closely connected with Corinth, namely, Sisyphus.
The outcome of Medea's oath-invoked curse calling for the
eradication of Jason's line is thus over-determined.
Gabriel Danzig,
"Apologizing for Socrates: Plato and Xenophon on
Socrates' Behavior in Court"
This paper
argues that the accounts of Socrates' behavior in court
given by both Plato and Xenophon stem from the need these
authors felt to respond, in different ways, to the
post-trial debate about Socrates. Plato's aim in the
Apology was
primarily to respond to specific charges of incompetence,
arrogance, and failure in court. Central literary and
philosophical difficulties in the composition can be
explained on this basis, as can characteristic Platonic
doctrines elaborated here and in other Socratic
dialogues. Xenophon's treatment of Socrates in his Apology can be explained by a similar polemical
motive. While Plato acknowledges that Socrates failed in
conventional terms, and develops an alternative framework
for evaluating success and failure, Xenophon makes the
more outrageous claim that Socrates was a success in
conventional terms.
Monica Gale,
"Poetry and the Backward Glance in Virgil's
Georgics and Aeneid"
This paper
explores the implications of parallels between three
episodes in Virgil's Georgics
and Aeneid, each of which involves the motif of the
hero's backward glance. Orpheus in Georgics
4 loses his wife because he looks back too soon;
conversely, Aeneas in Aeneid 2 and Nisus in Aeneid 9 look back too late. An examination of
parallels and contrasts between the three episodes sheds
light on Virgil's exploration of dichotomies between
poetry and politics, individual and community, past and
future.
Neil Bernstein,
"Ancestors, Status, and Self-Presentation in Statius'
Thebaid"
Polynices'
shamefaced self-presentations in Thebaid 1, Adrastus' sympathetic response, and
Jupiter's eventual punishment of both characters are read
as elements of a debate on the evitability of ancestral
stigma and the value of lineage in assessing character
and status. In arguing that Polynices can establish an
identity independent of his kingroup, Adrastus reveals
his ignorance of Jupiter's hostility to and the Fury's
ultimate control of Polynices. While the failure of
Adrastus' arguments contributes to the Thebaid's
negative representation of kinship, more constructive
relationships between kin and the absence of hostile
divinities permit Statius' speakers to validate similar
arguments in the Silvae.
III. Paragraphoi
Glenn W. Most,
"Violets in Crucibles: Translating, Traducing,
Transmuting"